


Napping Weather

by shinesurge



Category: Kidd Commander (Webcomic)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 13:31:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15950351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinesurge/pseuds/shinesurge
Summary: Ulrich and Noon have a nice chat.A generous novelization ofpages 68-69of A Wretched Analog, and then some.





	Napping Weather

**Author's Note:**

> Noon and Ulrich hanging out on lazy days is Good Content
> 
> There's sort of an alternate version of this you can read [over here!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16933137)

Ulrich hadn't realized he'd fallen asleep until Phineas' call floating through the kitchen door woke him. He considered all the things her shouting could mean and, exceedingly comfortable breathing in the scent of the open book covering his face, decided none of them were worth the trouble of hoisting himself out of his deck chair. She could come out and get him if it was important. 

"Ulrich!" This time her voice was closer, accompanied by the wooden door flinging open and quick footfalls on the grass. He felt her hovering even through the thick pages of _Blumen für das Heim_. 

" _Ulrich."_

 _"_ Mm?" the sunshine filtering through the canvas umbrella was _so_ comfortable. Decodenn was still registering as vaguely threatening in Ulrich's mind, but he had to admit there was certainly something to be said for assembly-line perfect napping weather. 

Phineas was shifting her weight between her feet like her soles were burning. Next to Ulrich Lucky Noon stirred, probably agitated by their commander's agitation, but didn't seem interested in contributing yet. They'd conjured themselves a fruity drink with an inefficient number of paper umbrellas fighting for room around the rim. Phineas continued breathlessly.

"Agatha radioed me, she says she wants us to go clothes shopping today." Ulrich made a contrary noise in his throat, then reached up with one hand to slide his book out of the way. His glasses had skewed to the side and he fixed them blearily, trying to adjust his vision to Phineas. She stood just outside the range of the umbrella, her edges too-bright in the sunlight. She was hard to look at.

"About that, er, if it's all the same I'd like to stay in this afternoon?" Ulrich offered tentatively. "Yesterday was a bit much and I'm _dreading_ this dinner tonight." Her face changed and he winced, anticipating her disappointment.

"You don't wanna go shopping for clothes? I thought this was like your THING."

"It is, most days." Ulrich responded irritably. It was so complicated, having to explain to Phineas what it was exactly that was annoying him. It was much easier to snap at her and he hated it. "YOU can go! You and Agatha can-" Phineas waved him off, a knowing smile half-formed on her face. Phineas had lots of smiles, Ulrich was learning; this one made him feel a lot like she was crawling up under his shirt.

"Nah don't make excuses, I was kinda gonna ask you to stay anyway, ah," she glanced away, suddenly self-conscious, which was a weird sort of way for her to look. "I wasss sort of hoping to spend some time with Agatha alone." 

"Have at it, by all means." Ulrich was already thumbing through his book, settling in to read again. Phineas grinned a big cheesy grin before flouncing away; Ulrich happened to glance up in time to catch it and something about it, something in the twitch of her lip stuck in his head. The new data didn't sit well.

"Thanks! See you-" Ulrich caught the hem of her coat. Phineas stopped short and turned to glare at him, but his serious expression evaporated the complaint she'd had ready to fire off. He felt Noon's gaze settle on his back.

"What's wrong?" Phineas asked.

"Listen, I," Ulrich saw Phineas' expression from the night before, watching Agatha tear steel with her bare hands, watching the street neon play over silver skin on the car ride home. He felt her draped warm and drunk across his lap while she slurred her affection for a... a person, she'd met not a day ago. He tried and failed for words as delicate as they needed to be. "I know how you feel, and I know you have good intentions. But you need to be considerate of her position, Phineas." Phineas' brow furrowed. Simpler then. "Don't upturn this woman's life needlessly." She blew a lock of hair from her face and smirked, rolling her eyes. Mm, that one meant she hadn't heard a god damned thing he'd just said.

"I ain't _gonna!_ Jeez Ulrich." She crossed her arms. Her feet were still angled towards the kitchen, itching to get back to her call and ignore Ulrich's good advice. "It's just clothes shopping." 

Ulrich regarded her sternly for a second longer, just enough to make her uncomfortable, then flicked his wrist backwards. The end of Phineas' coat fluttered down towards her knee.

"The most illicit _type_ of shopping." Ulrich said dryly. Phineas giggled and skipped off, slamming the door shut behind her hard enough to rattle the windows. Ulrich returned to his reading and tried not to think about what kind of mess he would be cleaning up once Phineas executed whatever she was planning, because it _would_ be a mess. 

Beside him, Noon sat up and took a long sip of their drink. Tiny libatory chaos erupted as the umbrellas began to collapse in on each other.

"Illicit huh? Speaking from experience?" Their voice in this form buzzed like a neon sign hanging on a 24-hour chapel.

"A tailor doesn't tell." Ulrich mumbled. He turned a page. "Not a good one, anyway."

"Are you a tailor then?"

"I am lots of things." Noon set their drink down and gathered their legs up under themself to sit crosslegged in the deck chair, facing Ulrich. Their shadow writhed where it peppered the grass through the slats in the chair, like it was crawling with briars. 

"Like what?" There was a faint smile on their lips. Unlike Phineas, Noon remained unreadable and soul-shakingly terrifying. Ulrich pretended to still be invested in his reading.

"Oh, whatever I've needed to pick up over time. I can sew, I can play a few instruments,"

"Sing?" Noon cut in. Ulrich didn't miss the way their head tilted, like the question held more weight than they let on, and filed it away for later.

"Just enough to carry a tune. I've never sung outside a chorus." It wasn't _exactly_ a lie. 

"Shame." Noon's grin was vicious and sharp and Ulrich felt the weight of their gaze even through their ridiculous sunglasses. "What else?" Ulrich sighed and closed his book, thinking. 

"Trickshooting, obviously. I can cook well enough I suppose." he turned to Noon, adjusting his sunglasses. The odd quality of Decodenn's sunlight under the shade of the umbrella made them look fuzzy, like they were a victim of signal interference. "I, um, I like to make...clockwork."

"Your little birds." Ulrich nodded. "I've seen you work on them, and your dice and your other toys. That's a lot of effort for expendable weapons."

"Style counts." 

"Mm," Noon said. They finished off their drink, the umbrellas sadly succumbing to their fate at the bottom of a wet glass, and the whole thing vanished. They leaned back in the chair, folding their arms behind their head and stretching languidly. The animated tattoos creeping up their body unfurled with them, roses and vines slithering up the side of their neck to brush their cheek. Ulrich thought he caught the scent of lotus and...money. Loose change.

"You work on those guns too." Oh, _quarters._ Buckets of quarters. "You know, I could make you a space to do all that in if you want."

That...was not where Ulrich had expected the conversation to go. He finally put his book on the table and leaned on the armrest, looking at Noon over the rims of his glasses.

"Like what?" Noon mirrored his pose conspiratorially, sending their tattoos scattering for purchase again.

"Whatever you need. Did you have a studio wherever you came from? What do you miss?"

"Privacy," Ulrich spat before he could stop himself. He winced and fidgeted with his glasses. "ach-"

"It's hard to work with someone like her around hm?" Noon hummed. "You two remind me an awful lot of Raven and Crow." 

Ulrich cleared his throat. He knew the names, knew Crow was Phineas' mentor and Raven, somehow, translated to Cold Hazard, but Noon hadn't yet offered any information at all about the crew he carried as Artemis, or...before? The subject felt like the door to a terminally overstuffed closet. He wasn't sure whether this was an indication to ask for details or if Noon was just making conversation and it frustrated him. They really didn't know each other very well yet.

"Do we?" he tried lamely. Noon nodded, smiling, looking away.

"Yeah, it's funny how things work out." 

"Did Raven sing?" Noon giggled.

"He sang for Jo a lot."

Noon heaved a quick sigh, shaking themself out of their wistful mood. 

"But yeah, Crow used to get all up in Raven's business when he was trying to get work done, it drove Raven crazy. I eventually built him a study Crow couldn't get to."

"You can do that?" 

"I can do anything you want, friend." 

Ulrich laced his fingers in his lap and pressed the pads of his thumbs together. 

"It's...not that I don't..." he had already decided to accept the offer, and was only trying to be graceful about needing to hide away from his commander, but another anxiety had crept up into his chest at the implications of what he was doing. He didn't want to think about how it might complicate things, make other things difficult later. He found it unsettlingly easy to use the excuse that he was just too busy right now to be conducting expeditions into his own psyche. Things would always be busy, as long as he stayed. With any luck at least.

If Noon had any insight into where Ulrich's thoughts had strayed, they didn't show it. Ulrich wasn't sure which would make him more uncomfortable.

"Of course, look, you're allowed to want your own space my guy. I'm not gonna rat you out, you think Phineas runs a ship like that?" Noon reclined in the chair. "I won't tell her anything you don't want her to know."

Ulrich laughed very softly and wondered how far he could push that rule.

"If it's not too much trouble I'd love somewhere to work. It is a pain having to drag everything out of the hat every time I need to fabricate something." Noon shook their head.

"So much work. Who even sees the junk you etch on the bullets?"

"I do." Ulrich said. 


End file.
